In the mining field, and in other fields in which large volumes of materials must be collected and removed from a work site, it is typical to employ a power shovel including a large dipper for shoveling the materials from the work site. After filling the dipper with material, the shovel swings the dipper to the side to dump the material into a material handling unit, such as a dump truck or a local handling unit (e.g., crusher, sizer, or conveyor). Generally, the shovels used in the industry include hydraulic shovels and electric rope shovels. Electric rope shovels typically include a shovel boom, the end of which rotatably supports a sheave or pulley. A hoist rope extends around the sheave or pulley and is connected to the shovel dipper to raise and lower the dipper, thereby producing an efficient digging motion to excavate the bank of material. Conventional electric rope shovels include a sheave that incorporates radially-extending, plate-type reinforcing members (also called stiffeners) between the plates of the sheave and cutouts in the plates between the reinforcing members.